Combing machines for wool and other textile fibres



COMBING MACHINES FOR WOOL AND OTHER TEXTILE FIBRES Filed Nov. 29, 1966 Shet of 5 FIG! Inventor 8 U! NIIIKIN IGLIIS DIRCKS 01.5mm: 055mm: :1 R0 n1. us 8' Hum Attorney;

y 27, 1969 M. CHAIKIN ETAL COMBING MACHINES FOR WOOL AND OTHER TEXTILE FIBRES Sheet Filed NOV. 29, 1966 WOC HLE DE May 27, 1969 M. CHAIKIN ET AL 3,445,896

COMBING MACHINES FOR WOOL AND OTHER TEXTILE FIBRES Filed Nov. 29, 1966 Sheet 3 of 5 FIGS May '27, 1969 COMBING MACHINES FOR WOOL AND OTHER TEXTILE FI BHES Filed NOV. 29, 1966 M. CHAIKIN ETAl- 3, 45, 5

Sheet 4 015 v y 1969 M. CHAlKlN ET AL I 3,445,896

COMB-ING MACHINES FOR WOOL AND OTHER TEXTILE FIBRES Filed Nov. 29-, 1966 Sheet 5 of s F'IGb mveuf'vres MHLCDL r CHHIKH/ flLEmuDER Downs NKCKs DEJMMo mama WW United States Patent US. Cl. 19-123 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A combing machine is formed of a plurality of feeding mechanisms disposed in an annular arrangement with the means for drawing and combing the fibres disposed inwardly from the feed mechanisms. Initially, a combing means is provided to rotate relative to the feeding means combing the forward ends of the fibres. Then clamping and withdrawing means including other combing means are provided for drawing the fibres radially inward and combing them as they are removed from the feed mechamsms.

The present invention relates to a combing machine for textile fibres and its object is to provide a combing machine which will operate smoothly and at high speed while producing a product of good quality.

While the invention may be applied to machines for combing a wide variety of fibres, it will for convenience be described in connection with the combing of wool. At present wool is combed mainly by the use of either the rectilinear comb or the noble comb. The former, while producing a particularly efiicient combing action involves the use of a great many reciprocating and intermittent movements and the latter, while utilising a rotary motion involves mechanisms which place a very substantial limit on the speed of working.

The present invention provides a machine which among other things incorporates the more desirable features of the machines mentioned above in providing the etficient combing action of the rectilinear comb and the continuous method of working of the noble comb.

The invention consists in a combing machine for combing textile fibres, having a plurality of feeding mechanisms arranged to feed forward intermittently a plurality of slivers of fibres to be combed, said feeding mechanisms being arranged around the circumference of a feed circle, a rotating comb means constructed and arranged to comb the forward ends of slivers fed forward by the feeding mechanisms, means to produce relative rotational movement about the centre of said circle bet-ween the said rotating comb means and the feeding mechanisms whereby the ends of the slivers are continuously combed in turn, clamping means to clamp each sliver adjacent its forward end on said feed circle, while the forward end is being combed, drawing-off means arranged to grip the combed forward ends of each sliver in turn and to draw-01f from the sliver the fibres gripped, the drawing-off means having a rotational movement about the centre of said circle relative to the feeding mechanisms, a comb arranged adjacent each said feeding mechanism, means to move each the combed ends of the sliver adjacent combed fibres from said drawing-01f means and form them into a sliver or slivers.

It is preferred to maintain the circle of feeding mechanisms stationary and to rotate the rotating comb means and the drawing-off means about the centre of the circle.

In order that the invention may be better understood and put into practice preferred embodiments thereof are hereinafter described by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a part sectional elevation of apparatus according to the invention on line I-I of FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the major part of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a view to an mechanism of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a part sectional elevation of another form of the invention having a modified rotating comb means.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a view to an enlarged scale illustrating a detail of the construction.

In the preferred form the combining machine consists of a circular base 10, around which are evenly spaced a number of feeding mechanisms 11, for example eighteen, one of which is shown to an enlarged scale in FIG. 3 to feed forward a similar number of slivers 12 intermittently in a radially inward direction, see FIG. 2. Each feeding mechanism consists of a pair of feed rollers 13 and 14 which act to draw a sliver 12 from a sliver can 15 placed below the rollers and to flatten out the sliver and feed it to a fully pinned porcupine roller 16. The porcupine roller 16, in conjunction with a stripping plate 17 and a guide plate 18, feeds the sliver forward to a substantially horizontal continuous annular surface 21 placed radially inward of the porcupine roller 16; this surface 21 contains the nip line for the end of the slivers 12 projecting from the porcupine rollers 16 and constitutes the feed circle for the machine having a vertical axis 37. Feeding mechanisms 11 are arranged in such a manner that in operation the surface 21 is covered with a uniform layer of fibres, the forward ends of which project radially inwardly beyond the nip line for a distance of, for example 1", the projecting ends of the fibres being thus freely accessible for combing. The motion of the feeding mechanisms 11 is intermittent and adjustable to feed a predetermined length of fibres for each combing action.

Motion of the feeding mechanisms 11 may be produced in a variety of ways one of which is illustrated and is best seen in FIG. 3. In this arrangement an intermittent motion is produced by the action of the composite layer 19 the hooked end of which engages the teeth of the ratchet wheel 20, the lever 19 being operated by the hydraulic jack 28, which is actuated by a hydraulic distributing mechanism referred to below, so that each jack 28 around the feed circle is actuated in turn at the right time to cause each feeding mechanism to feed forward a predetermined length of a sliver 12.

The inwardly projecting ends of the fibres are clamped along the nip line during combing by means of a plurality of nipper jaws 22 pressed against the surface 21 by a series of hydraulic cylinders 23 arranged above the surface 21. Only two of the cylinders 23 are shown in FIG. 1 for clarity.

Combing of the projecting ends of the fibres is carried out by rotating comb means consisting of two fully pinned cylinders 24 each of which is mounted for rotation about its principal axis and which is continually rotated about that axis in the direction of the arrows A by suitable driving means (not shown). Each combining cylinder 24 is supported on a radial arm 26 extending from a rotating table 20 supported from a pivot at the centre of the circular base 10, the arrangement being such that each cylinenlarged scale of part of the der 24, while rotating on its own axis is also rotated about the vertical axis 37 of the feed circle by the main drive motor 27. The effect of this is that as each cylinder 24 is moved in a circular path it combs the projecting ends of the fibres continuously during its movement around the inner edge of the annular surface 21, the fibres of each sliver being combed in turn.

In view of the rotation of each combing cylinder 24 about two axes it is convenient to arrange the axis of the cylinder so that it lies at an angle to the plane of the circle containing the annular surface 21 as is indicated in FIG. 1. This satisfies two requirements:

(1) The horizontal section of the cylinder 24 is an ellipse and portion of it will be concurrent with the feed circle for all practical purposes, eliminating the expense and difficulties of manufacturing and pinning a more complex solid of rotation, which would precisely fit the feed circle.

(2) The movement of the pins is governed by two velocity vectors. If the magnitudes of these vectors are selected properly, the resultant vector at the moment of combing will bewith little deviationvertical. Furthermore by altering the magnitude of one of the vectors with respect to the other, the alignment of the fibres projecting from the nip circle can be changed. This latter characteristic may be useful to increase the efficiency of the drawing-off.

Movement of the combing cylinders 24 around the feed circle is synchronised with movement of the nipper jaws 22 so that as the ends of fibres are being combed they are also gripped along the nip line. A rotating brush 29 is provided to operate in conjunction with each combing cylinder 24 to remove short fibres, neps and burrs from the pins of the combing cylinder.

Once the forward ends of the fibres of a sliver have been combed by one of the combing cylinders it is necessary to draw-off those fibres from the body of the sliver 12 while simultaneously combing the remaining rear portion of the fibres. This is done by providing a rotating drawing-off mechanism which may take a number of forms, one of which is described in detail below. Any such drawing-off mechanism acts to grip the free forward ends of a group of fibres and to draw them inwardly preferably in a radial direction. In order to comb the remaining rear portion of the fibres a number of back combs or filter combs 31 are provided on the inner surface of the feed circle. A hydraulic cylinder 32 is provided to move the filter comb 31 associated with the fibres of each sliver 12 and this acts to move the filter comb 31 upwardly so that its pins penetrate the fibres just inwardly of the feed circle. The filter comb 31 is subsequently withdrawn after completion of the drawing-off operation.

In the present embodiment of the invention the drawing-off mechanism consists of a pair of detaching rings 33 made up of a plurality of detaching clamps 34, each ring being rotated by electric motor 53. Each clamp 34 is actuated by a hydraulic cylinder 35. By appropriate synchronisation of the rotation of the detaching ring 33 about the hub 36 and the rotation of the hub 36 about the vertical axis 37 of the feed circle the clamps 34 can be caused to clamp the forward ends of a quantity of fibres projecting from the nip line of the feed circle 21, the fibres being clamped between the pivotally movable head 34a of the clamp 34 and the flange 34b (see FIG. 3), and draw the fibres radially inwardly towards the axis 37 of the feed circle. As each fibre is withdrawn the clamped end of it follows a path which is a hypocycloid. By choosing the diameter of the detaching ring 33 to be approximately half the diameter of the feed circle and by appropriate choice of the speeds of rotation the hypocycloid is approximately a straight line which is also approximately radial to the feed circle.

With this arrangement the fibres are drawn off substantially in the same straight line as the end of the sliver 12 and no substantial change of direction of the fibre takes place during the drawing-off process. After the drawingoff operation each sliver 12 is automatically advanced by the feeding mechanisms 11 ready for the next combing action.

Once the fibres have been completely drawn-off from the sliver they are carried around by the clamps 34 of the detaching rings 33 to a point near the axis 37 of the feed circle where they are taken up and formed into a sliver by one of the pairs of rollers 38 and a rotating funnel and coiler not shown on the drawing.

The hydraulic cylinders 23, 28, 32 and 35 are operated by hydraulic fluid supplied by a gear pump 39, distributed by a suitable hydraulic circuit and hydraulic fluid distributors contained in the hubs 36. Hydraulic lines 55 are taken from gear pump 39 to cylinders 23, 28 and 32 via cam operated valves 56, one or two for each cylinder as required, the valves being fixed to the circular base 10 and the valve cams 57 being attached to the periphery of the table 20, the arrangement being such that the valves 56 are actuated in sequence by the cams. Cylinders 35 are actuated by hydraulic lines 58 from the pump 39 passing through the hollow central shaft 30 to a swivel point 59 at the centre of table 20 from which a hydraulic line passes to the hydraulic distributor 60 in hub 36. The hydraulic circuitry has been shown schematically in the interest of portraying the invention clearly in the drawing and because the arrangement of the hydraulic circuitry is not an essential element of the invention. Whilst moving towards the rollers 38 the ends of the fibres are turned towards them for more efficient collection by means of a transfer belt 40.

The apparatus described above is equally adaptable to the combing of all types of textile fibres, such as cotton and wool, with modification of details such as pinning of the cylinder 24 to obtain optimum results with a particular type of fibre. While in the apparatus described two combing cylinders 24 and two drawing-off devices are described it will be readily appreciated that 1, 2, 3, 4 or more of these devices may be included within the feed circle for optimum economy.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show an embodiment of the invention which is the same in general construction as that described above but differs from it in the use of a different rotating comb means. The comb cylinders 24 of FIG. 1 are replaced by another form of pinned rotating comb assembly 41 that is rotated by electric motor 54 and consists of a number of upper pinned segments 42 and lower pinned segments 43 which are actuated to open or close as a pair by the hydraulic cylinder 44. Each of the segments 42 and 43 carries one or more rows of pins projecting from that segment towards the other segment of the pair. The rows of pins are placed so that they overlap without touching each other when the segments are closed. Each pair of pinned segments is made to close at a point where they are closest to the feed circle as shown on the righthand side of FIG. 4, thus causing the pins to penetrate the projecting fringe of fibres.

FIG. 6 shows the manner in which the segments 42 and 43 are actuated to open and close by cylinder 44. The cylinder 44 contains two pistons 48 and 49, the former being connected to segment 42 and the latter to segment 43 in the manner shown. Ports 50, 51 and 52 permit hydraulic fluid to be admitted to or to leave the cylinder 44 and as can be readily seen the admission of fluid to port 51 and its return through ports 50 and 52 will cause the segments 42 and 43 to close. Flow of fluid in the opposite sense will cause the segments to open.

The combing assembly 41 rotates about its centre, and also about the centre of the feed circle in the same way as the drawing-off rings 33. As the assembly 41 rotates the forward ends of the fibres are combed by the pins, and the noil consisting of short fibres, neps and other impurities is removed from the pins when the segments have opened by air jets 45 which transfer the noil to a collecting suction tube 46 which transports it to a container external to the combining machine. The point in rotation of the assembly 41 at which each pair of segments closes and opens is controlled by a hydraulic distributor 47.

The embodiments of the invention described above are given by way of example only to assist in an understandof the invention and is one of a number of forms of the invention which may be constructed within the broad scope thereof.

We claim:

1. A combing machine for combing textile fibres comprising a plurality of feeding mechanisms disposed in an annular arrangement about an axis and forming a feed circle about the inner periphery of the annularly arranged said feeding mechanisms, said feeding mechanisms arranged to feed intermittently a plurality of slivers of fibres to be combed inwardly into the feed circle, a rotating comb means located within the feed circle and arranged to comb the forward ends of slivers fed inwardly by said feeding mechanisms, means to produce relative rotational movement about the axis of the feed circle between the said rotating comb means and said feeding mechanisms whereby the forward ends of the slivers of fibres fed inwardly by each of said feed mechanism are combed in turn, clamping means to clamp each sliver adjacent its forward end adjacent the inner periphery of the annular arrangement of said feed mechanisms, drawing-off means arranged to clamp the combed forward ends of each sliver in turn and to draw-off from the sliver the fibres clamped, the drawing-off means having a rotational movement relative to said feeding mechanisms, a comb arranged adjacent and inwardly from each said feeding mechanism, means to move each said comb into the combed forward ends of the sliver whereby the remaining portions of the fibres rearwardly of the combed forward ends are drawn-01f by said drawing-off means and are combed while being drawn-01f, and means to take up combed fibres from said drawing-01f means.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said feeding mechanisms are stationary and said feeding mechanisms are arranged to feed the forward ends of the slivers radially inwards towards the centre of the feed circle.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said drawing-01f mechanism comprises a plurality of fibre clamping means disposed in an annular arrangement and the circumferential periphery thereof forming a second circle lying substantially in the same plane as and within said feed circle, means to rotate said fibre clamping means about an axis passing through the centre of said second circle, means for closing said clamping means about the combed forward ends of the fibres of a sliver at a point inwardly adjacent the circumference of the feed circle, and means to open said clamping means to release said fibres after they have been drawn-off, the peripheral speed and direction of rotation of said clamping means on said second circle being such that the fibres are drawn-oft from said feeding mechanisms along a hypocyloidal path.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the diameter of the said second circle is of the order of half the diameter of the feed circle whereby fibres are drawn off in a substantially radial direction toward the centre of the feed circle.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein said clamping means comprises a ring member, a plurality of clamps each mounted for pivoting about a horizontal axis and arranged around the circumference of said member, a hydraulic cylinder openatively attached to each said clamp to clamp fibres against the upper surface of said ring and subsequently to release them and hydraulic distributing means for sequentially actuating said bydraulic cylinders.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rotating comb means comprises a pinned cylinder arranged to rotate about its axis, the axis of said cylinder being inclined to the plane of the feed circle so that relative motion between the pins of the cylinder and the fibres being combed is in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the feed circle and radial thereto.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said rotating comb means comprises a plurality of upper and lower oppositely disposed pinned segments disposed in an annular arrangement and the circumferential periphery forming a second circle lying substantially in the same 7 plane as and within said feed circle, means to rotate said rotating comb means about an axis passing through the centre of said second circle, means for closing each pair of upper and lower pinned segments sequentially at a point adjacent the circumference of the feed circle to penetrate the forward ends of the sliver in turn, and means to separate said segments after the ends of the slivers have been combed, the peripheral speed and direction of rotation of said pinned segments being such that the ends of the slivers are combed in a directiton substantially radial to the centre of the feed circle.

1876 Great Britain. 5/1946 Great Britain.

DORSEY NEWTON, Primary Examiner. 

